The Usual Story
by The Smokey Gerbil Cloud
Summary: Nick 'Fang' Rivers is a soccer player, Maximum 'Max' Ride is the antisocial new girl with two insane best friends. The usual story of Jock and Geek, yeah? Wrong. Max and Fang have secrets, like: 'Why won't Fang shower in the locker room' and:  'Why won't Max go swimming with a buddy' The answer? They both have wings.
1. Chapter 1

(A/N): Hey Guys! So, this is my first fanfic with an actual pairing, not just someone and an OC. I hope you like it!

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><p>Max<p>

Why were we moving again? Oh yeah, because the stupid school we went to before failed to keep their bullies in order. My sister Ella had been picked on by some of the older, more bitchier girls at our school, and I had decided to teach them a lesson. A.K.A: They slammed their face against my hands over and over until they passed out. Of course, with the school being very '_strict_' on violence, they kicked Ella and I out. The reason the girls had picked on Ella was because she actually _liked_ studying, unlike me, who did just about anything to avoid school-work. I also played soccer, so I was pretty popular, sort of, except for the fact that I couldn't talk to people very much, or, well, at all. My friends Nudge and Angel were practically sisters to me, especially since we all had wings. Yes, that's right, I said wings. A bunch of crazy scientists we like to call 'White Coats' mixed our DNA with bird DNA, so now we were 98% human and 2% avian. When we were younger, a man I thought of as my father, a White Coat named Jeb helped us to escape from the 'School', which is our name for the lab in which we were made. After he disappeared, Nudge, Angel and I found my mother and half-sister, Valencia and Ella Martinez. They had accepted us warmly and didn't even care that much when we got into fights, seeing as we always had a good reason. This time however, we had to move states, from Nevada to Virginia. Of course, moving states also meant we had to move schools, but luckily, it had been near the end of the year when Ella and I were expelled, so we didn't have to start at a new school in the middle of the year. Still, we had to move, so that meant saying goodbye to all my friends. Pfft, yeah right!

"Max? Have you packed yet?" My mother yelled up the stairs, where I sat in my empty room, surrounded by a dozen or so boxes full of my stuff.

"I think so! When is the moving van getting here?" I called down, waiting impatiently for an answer, my foot tapping on the carpet softly.

"They just did!" I raised an eyebrow before shrugging and picking up a few boxes to take down to the van. We did this for the better part of an hour, and then mom made us help her rearrange the van so that everything actually fit. I blew my hair out of my eyes as my mother finally declared it a job done and took us back inside for one last look around.

"Mom, can't we just go?" Ella and I whined simultaneously, which made us both grin.

"We have to meet Angel and Nudge soon!" My mother, although she loved them like daughters, didn't have the room in the house to keep them here, so she bought them a small apartment down the road, even though they ended up at our house most of the time anyway. I reached over my shoulder and scratched the spot between my wings, letting my head loll back in pleasure. Ella slapped me on the arm and pulled me into the house behind mom, obviously now feeling sentimental.

"I'm going to miss this old place." Mum sighed, glancing around the small lounge room with her hands on her hips, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Oh well." She said, pulling the door shut quickly and turning towards our car. Ella jumped in the front seat and I sat happily in the back with my earphones in, listening to Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars. We quickly reached Nudge and Angels apartment, where they instantly jumped in the back with me with bright smiles on their faces. Nudge was a few months younger than I was, and Angel was two years younger, but we were still great friends, and they got along really well with Ella.

"Hey Ella! Hey Dr.M!" My mother was a vet, not an actual doctor, but don't ever say that in front of her, or she will test your temperature, and not from your mouth either.

"Hi Dr. M, hey Ella!" Angel said quietly, her long, curly blonde hair bobbing as she clicked her seat-belt into place. I was sixteen, Nudge fifteen and a half, Angel was fourteen and Ella was fifteen as well.

"Hello girls! Get seated, it's going to be a long drive."

A few hours later, Angel was asleep with her head on my shoulder, Nudge was still talking faster than Mom was driving, Ella was glaring at her hair in the mirror and I was flipping through the songs on my ipod as Mom pulled into a driveway. Startled, I almost dropped my ipod as I looked out the window at the magnificent house that loomed in front of us. It looked like one of those old haunted houses had been spruced up a bit and put on the market. The outside was light brown wooden panels, the door made of slightly darker wood, the porch went not just across the font of the house, but all the way around, with a set of short stairs at the front and back. It was two story, the perfect height to jump off of and go flying. Ella, Nudge, Angel and I raced to the front door and waited impatiently as mom unlocked the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in the window in the house next door, which was much like this one except made of lighter wood, and turned to glare at the invisible person watching me. As soon as my mother unlocked the door I pushed my way past my sister and friends and raced up the stairs to find a bedroom with a view. I jumped onto the first bed I saw, which just so happened to face the next door neighbors house. The room was at the corner of the house, and I realised, for the first time, that it had a balcony through a set of glass doors. My bed was pressed against the wall next to the door and faced the balcony. The door was opposite a bay seat window, which faced the house next door. Great, now I had to get curtains doubly as much! This room was much bigger than my old one, the floor made out of mahogany wood, along with bed and a desk that stood between the bay window and the balcony, on a short wall that ran diagonally. I relaxed on my bed for a few minutes before the truck arrived and we all went out to unpack our stuff, and I informed them of my claim on that beautiful bedroom. Just after I got inside with the first of my box's, someone rang the doorbell, which was actually a bell! How cool is that? I ran down stairs and reached the door the same time as Nudge, Ella, Angel and mom, all of which were downstairs. Man they are slow! Mom pulled the door open and was tackled into a tight hug by a blonde woman.

"Valencia! It's so good to see you!" She pulled away and smiled at us all brightly, as if noticing a present under the Christmas tree for the first time. "I'm Anne and these are my sons, Nick, Jeff and Zephyr!" She gestured to the three boys behind her, all of which looked nothing like her. The oldest boy had pitch eyes and hair that was longer than most boys but still shorter than most girls, olive skin, wore all black and had a sort of amused/exasperated look on his face, though it was hard to tell considering it was mainly blank and was around my age. The second boy had strawberry blonde hair, was very pale and wore a very amused and mischievous look and was about the same age as the first. The third boy looked maybe two years younger than both of them and had blonde hair, a cowlick, lightly tanned skin, this boy looked the most like Anne, but he didn't have any of the same features except for being blonde. On top of all that, they were extraordinary tall for their ages, just like Nudge, Angel and I were.

"Although, they probably want me to introduce them like this: Hi! I'm Anne, and these are my adopted sons, Fang, Iggy and Gazzy." A small smile edged its way onto the oldest one, Fang's lips and it brightened up his whole face, and I felt a slight tug in my stomach. He looked nice when he smiled. Oh my god, where the hell did that come from? Angel looked over at me and grinned, and I knew she had read that thought.

"We live next door girls, and when Valencia said she needed a house and a decent school to enroll you girls in, well I told her about this neighborhood! I mean, it's as close as needed to the High School my boys go to, Grayson High, and this house is well within her price range!" The way Anne spoke it was if her very being was an exclamation mark. She wore a pair of light grey sweats paired with a light grey sweats jacket unzipped over a pink camisole and a pair of white nikes. A whistle hung on a simple chain around her neck and I almost winced as I imagined it whistling in my ear.

"Well, anyway, we just wanted to know if you girls needed anything?" Valencia shook her head before turning to smirk at me and I winced as I realised what she was going to do.

"No, but I would like to introduce my daughters, Ella and Max. Oh, and my girls, Angel and Nudge!" I rolled my eyes and blushed lightly as mom introduced me, I hated being the center of attention.

"Say, do any of you play soccer, because Max made the team last year at Newbery High back in Arizona." I scowled at my mothers attempt to boast.

"Actually, I coach soccer at the high school and Gazzy plays on our team, oh and Fang's captain!" Uh oh, it was turning into a battle of the proud mom's! I widened my eyes at the boys across from me, only to realize they were halfway down the street. I shrugged and took off after them, may as well make some friends, especially if they're into soccer. Nudge, Angel and Ella all started to follow me and we eventually caught up to the boys in the park.

"Morning!" I called cheerily, and the blonde one, Gazzy, turned to grin at me.

"Hey, Max, right?" He asked looking me up in down in a way that made me want to smack him. Suddenly, however, before I got the chance, he was swung over the shoulder of the dark spot called Fang. I watched in surprise as he walked over to where Iggy sat on the wooden bench and set Gazzy down on the seat.

"Yeah, it's Max." Ella said with a chuckle.

"Short for Maximum." I informed them before instantly feeling foolish.

"I like it. Suits you." What was with this guy? Didn't he ever speak in full sentences?

"Fang, heads up." Fang and I's head snapped up and saw the soccer ball heading straight for him. A normal person would have moved out the way, but I analyzed the balls trajectory, a true soccer player. Fang trapped the ball with his chest before dropping it to his feet where he trapped it with his foot again and then quickly shot the ball back into the air towards its owner with the side of his shoe.

"Looks like Sam still has it out for you." Iggy said with a grin, staring not at Fang, but in his general direction.

"Looks like." Fang muttered before sinking onto the bench between Iggy and Gazzy.

"So, Anne said you're captain of your team?" Fang looked up at me and smiled slightly, and I felt my heart pound just a little bit faster as he did so.

"Yeah, but I didn't ask for the position. Hell, I wasn't even living with Anne when I got the position." Ah, so people think he got it through favoritism?

"Is that why that Sam guy punted the ball at you earlier?" Angel asked quietly, her eyes fixed on Fang. "Or was it something else?" I could tell, by the look on her face, that she was trying to read his mind. She blinked suddenly and took a step closer to my side. What the hell did she find? I smiled at the boys and glanced down at the clock on my ipod.

"We better get back to unpacking, otherwise mom will get so mad she'll probably ban me form my new room." The boy smiled and nodded in understanding and made our way back to the house.

'What did you see Angel?" She looked up at me, clearly frightened, as soon as we were out of earshot.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. It was just…empty. That's the weird thing, I got all sorts of things from Iggy and Gazzy, but it was like Fang was there but not… its like he was invisible." She shuddered and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"What the hell is going on?" Nudge asked quietly, and I wondered the same thing myself.

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><p>(AN): Okay, so the reason Fang is invisible is because I figured that if Angel could read his mind they would find out that they had wings all too quickly, so I mad it a side effect of the fact that Fang goes invisible if he sits still for too long. Please review to tell me how it went!


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N): Hey Guys! So, I know I haven't updated this story in a long time, but everything got kind of rotten around here lately, and my microsoft word stopped working, so I had to use Notepad, and for most of the time I didn't even have the files considering they were all stuck on my little netbook, which had run out of battery and couldn't be charged, so we had to find a way to charge it and then transfer all the files onto my new computer, and then I was busy updating my other fanfics and worrying about school and such.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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><p>Fang<p>

So, we had new neighbours? I guess I'll have to make sure Gazzy and Iggy are more careful when we go flying so we don't get caught. It was strange though, when I was sitting there on that bench in that park, talking to the youngest one, Angel, I swear I had felt something or _someone_ touch my mind. It was like someone's fingers dangling a millimetre above your skin, they aren't quite touching you but you can still feel it. Soon after Max, Nudge, Ella and Angel left, so did we, but we didn't go home. Instead, we took to the sky. With what you ask? Our wings. That's right, we have wings, because some whacked out scientists decided that they would mix our DNA with bird DNA, and now we were 98% human and 2% avian.

I didn't know if there were others like us out there, but I know that the School had been working in that field for a long time, and probably were still churning out odd mixes of genetic mishaps. I'm not saying that we're exactly normal, but there's nothing weirder than being mixed with an eel. Iggy, Gazzy and I coasted high above the ground, our wings glimmering in the sunlight, simply enjoying the feeling of flying. Eventually though, we had to turn towards home, and we swooped towards the copse of trees between our house and the one next door. As we neared the trees, I noticed, as only one with razor sharp eye-sight can, that Max, Nudge, Ella and Angel out on the balcony closest to our house. I hesitated, and Gazzy and Iggy, sensing this, pulled back.

"What?" I gestured towards them silently and Gazzy scoffed.

"Please Fang, they're way too far away to see us!" Then, being Gazzy, he dove straight through the treetops. Iggy and I, even though he's blind, followed after him immediately, but not before I noticed the girls on the balcony's heads snap up in our direction. As soon as we landed safely on the ground, I pulled Iggy and Gazzy back against a tree and engaged my power, invisibility. As long as they remained still enough, we would all be invisible. It was a good thing I did too, because less than a minute later, Max, Nudge and Angel blew into the clearing with Ella catching up a few seconds later.

"I could have sworn…" I heard max mutter as she spun around a few feet from us, staring straight through us.

"It was….probably….just…your imagination…Max." Ella told her between pants, her hands on her knees as she doubled over in front of us.

"No, I swear, I saw something fly in here." Angel's lips quirked down slightly and she laid her arm on Max's arm.

"It was probably just a bird." She said, her eyebrow quirking slightly, as if she thought Max was crazy, but was too afraid to say anything about it. Max spun around suddenly and punched the tree right next to my face, missing me by millimetres. Oh my, that was the best luck I've had in years. Iggy and Gazzy started to jump, but I gripped their wrists tighter, holding them in place. After waiting a full minute, Max nodded slightly and ushered the rest of her group back to her house. I waited another minute before releasing my grip on Gazzy and Iggy.

"Okay. Let's go inside." They started forward and I grabbed them again. "Around the back." I growled, waiting as Gazzy and Iggy turned around to make their way back to the back door. We snuck through the back yard and into the house, keeping an eye on the new neighbors to make sure they didn't see us enter the whole time. I shut the door behind us quietly and turned to look at the other two boys, who were standing in front of me.

"We need to be more careful." I told them, staring them down to make sure they understood.

"We will. No more rushing in, and no more flying low." I raised an eyebrow at Iggy's last comment and he seemed to realize his mistake, paling instantly.

"I mean uh…not that we _have_ been flying low, it's just that uh….we shouldn't?" I rolled my eyes at his nervous and questioning words before shaking my head.

"Never mind Ig, just don't do it again. You either Gazzy!" I called as they started racing up the stairs to their rooms, trying to get away before I had the chance to punish them for being so reckless. I walked into the kitchen to see Anne making sandwiches. Lots and lots of sandwiches.

"What happened?" She asked, sounding worried, most likely having heard what we were saying earlier.

"Iggy and Gazzy were reckless and the new girls next door saw us. Or, well, thought they saw us. I'll you though, that Max has a heel of a punch, for a human." I was starting to suspect she wasn't. After all, who could punch with that force, or seen us from that far away to begin with? No human, that's for darn sure! Anne paused and turned to look at me before blinking slowly.

"Fang, you aren't thinking what I think you're thinking are you?" I shook my head quickly, a little too quickly, and Anne sighed.

"But Anne-" She cut me off with a stern look.

"Remember the last time you really thought about something like this? You thought Sam was trying to sell you out to the Erasers! Turns out, you were just being paranoid. I know that, on many occasions, being paranoid has saved you and your brothers lives, but could you turn it down a notch dear? I don't want you getting into trouble over this." She said quietly, not able to look me in the eye as she doubted me. I let my head drop towards the floor and she lifted my chin up so that I was looking in her eyes.

"I don't doubt you it's just…I don't think it's possible." I raised an eyebrow and she back-pedaled.

"I just don't think that Valencia would be able to miss this, and she said that they're her real daughters! Well, two of them anyway." I waited for a second after she was done before I nodded, resigning to just being paranoid in secret instead of telling Anne from now on.

Perhaps half an hour later, the doorbell rang and I, being the only one downstairs, calmly went to get it when Gazzy and Iggy raced down the stairs and tried to beat me to it, but ultimately, I got there first, no matter what they might try to tell you otherwise.

"Hey Max…..Nudge, Angel….Ella." I greeted them as they arrived, first Max, who had rung the doorbell, and then Nudge who had run across from their house to catch up with her, and Angel who had done the same before greeting Ella who arrived last, more out of breath than the others.

"Hi Fang, Gazzy, Iggy." Nudge said warmly, probably guessing that her older sister wouldn't bother to greet us before just starting to talk, which she did not seconds later.

"Did you see something fly into the trees behind your house, maybe half an hour ago? I saw it, but the other girls think I'm crazy, so I wanted to see if you guys saw anything seeing as its right next to that room there." She pointed to the room with the balcony identical to the one we had seen her sitting on earlier, my room.

"Well, you don't need us then!" Iggy said at the same time Gazzy spoke.

"Yeah, that's Fang's room!" They then grinned at me before turning and racing up the stairs.

"Well? Did you see anything?" Max asked hurriedly, staring at me, waiting for an answer impatiently.

"Not that I know of. Then again, I wasn't really paying attention considering I was trying not to let Iggy and Gazzy blow up the whole house-" I was cut off by a huge boom from upstairs that shook the house.

"Iggy, Gazzy, you're in big trouble if I find out that was something of mine!" I called up the stairs, and I could hear their well audible groans from here.

"Do they do that a lot?" Angel asked timidly and I smiled slightly at her.

"You may want to get used it, it goes on all hours of the night and day." I said, slightly bitterly, remembering the time they blew apart my room in the last house we lived in. I guess it was just lucky I wasn't in there at the time.

"Well-" The girls were cut off by Mrs Martinez's voice calling from across the land between our homes.

"Girls! Dinners Ready!" They glanced at each other before yelling their goodbyes to me as they rushed to get back over to their house.

"Boys, dinners ready!" Anne yelled from the kitchen, and I shut the door quickly and raced in there, hoping to get some food before Gazzy and Iggy ate it all.

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><p>(AN): The reason I made Fang paranoid of Max and the other girls is because he strikes me as a rather paranoid person. You know, having been on the run or tortured and experimented on for all his life, you'd be a bit paranoid too! Also, Max is paranoid because well, she's Max, and pretty much the same reasons as Fang. I added in the little bit of 'You thought Sam was trying to sell you out to the Erasers' in there because that's what happens in Schools Out Forever. Also, you'll find out why Sam hates Fang in the next chapter, and it has to do with that incident.

Please review and/or check out my other stories!


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